


Discovery

by snowynight



Category: Marvel Adventures: Avengers
Genre: Characters Reading Fanfiction, Characters Writing Fanfiction, First Kiss, First Time, Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-18
Updated: 2011-08-18
Packaged: 2017-10-22 18:45:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/241317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowynight/pseuds/snowynight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve discovers RPF and gets a lesson from the Internet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discovery

Steve was checking his email in his room when he saw a particularly strange one. He paused for awhile and went to find the person who would answer his question. 

At the workshop , Tony was working on probably his armour there. Steve waited for Tony to pause and asked, "Tony, what 's an RPF?" 

There was a strained silence before Tony answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Someone’s sent me an email with a subject Captain America/Iron Man RPF."

"It's a spam. Delete it. I need to tighten your email spam control again if this goes through.”

"All right," Steve said. He did wonder why Tony sounded a bit tense.

* * *

 

Steve was invited to  a comics con event as a guess speaker for a comics illustrating the Avengers exploits. Steve felt shy about the existence of such a comic, as it sounded like something reserved for the celebrity, but Tony assured him that it was for the good.

“It’s all for good PR,” Tony said.

After giving a speech and sitting at a booth signing signatures for people who queued before him, Steve walked around the room, stopping to have his photo taken. Then he caught some pieces of discussion from a group of women.

"RPF fodder... Pity that Iron Man does come... posting on com..."

  
It piqued Steve's curiosity. It was the second time he’d heard  the initials. What was this thing called RPF?

When he returned to his room, he switched on his computer, accessed the Internet, and searched the term. After some googling, he accessed a lifejournal community called starsandarmor. He read the profile page and saw that this was mainly about him and Tony. And there was a thing called RPS. So many acronyms.

Steve saw Jan passing by his room and asked, "Jan, do you know what RPF and RPS are?"

"They are... Wait, why're you asking?"

Steve showed Jan the computer screen.

Jan stuttered, "Well, you know the Avengers comics right? It's like that, only done by a community and freely distributed among itself. It's an outlet of creativity. "

Steve got it. It was a collaborative art project. "It sounds amazing. How can I join?"

"Are you sure?" There was a tint of worry in Jan’s voice. Steve didn’t get why.

"Why not?"

"Hey, Jan! Time to go now! The concert’s going to open!" Tigra ran by Steve’s room and shouted.

"All right," Jan said. Then she turned to Steve. "Just... if you join, choose a pseudonym and don't say you're Captain America. It'll stifle other people’s creativity, you know."

"Sure," Steve promised.

After Jan left with Tigra, Steve set up an lifejournal account. He would have used “Steve” as his user name, but it was already taken so he chose Steve 2305 instead. He also used a picture of his shield as his icon.  Then he joined the community. He recalled the days he earned spare cash by drawing celebrity comics, where the Hollywood stars went on all kind of adventures. Doing one about himself and Tony and sharing it freely gave him a thrill, as if he had been pretending to be a star.

Steve read around the community to see how it operated around. It clearly was a multimedia project because people posted art, stories and video. There were a lot of terms he couldn’t understand, like beta. And why was there a content note/warning section? The other day he saw people talking about using LJ-cut, which sound mysterious. He posted a comment to ask what it was, and got an answer. People around seemed to be friendly enough.

After he was sure that he knew most of the rules, he went to the library, scanned and posted his art. His first posted drawing detailing the day that Tony was turned into a mermaid and jumped into a lake. It received a lot of praise. They like his use of colour, the way he draw Iron Man and himself. There were a lot of encouragement for him to draw more, though he had no idea why his art was described as “delicious crack”. It must be some kinds of net speak.

Steve also had no idea why the work posted there were rated like movies. No books in book stores were rated this way, not to mention art. He did it anyway because it was required.

When Steve  was having lunch with Tony, Tony asked, "What’re you doing these days?"

"I set up a journal account and show my art to others."

"It’s great. What’re you drawing?”

“Mostly about we fighting the villains.”

“Do you draw my best side? Forward a link to me. I’d like to see them.

"You can see the originals in my room. I can show them to you later ."

  
At night he browsed the community as usual, and he clicked on a fic labelled NC17 by accident. It started off innocently with Cap entering Tony’s office and talking to him. Steve really didn’t see why it was rated NC17.  But when Steve continued reading, the fic developed into  sex between Steve and Tony. It made his face burn like fire and he closed the browser window, turned around to ensure that no one saw him.

Then he opened the window again, and typed a lifejournal message to the author named kult2035. "Do you think it's a bit wrong writing Cap having sex with Tony Stark? It's not true."

Came the reply, "Well, Tony Stark himself won't mind, so why should you?"

"How do you know?"

"No one'll mind being able to have sex with Cap. It's a fact. "

Steve didn't want to follow the track of discussion though. He decided to cross this off his mind.

He found that he couldn't.

The next day when he was playing basketball with Tony, he idly wondered whether Tony's lips really felt as soft as what the fic described, and it made him hesitate several seconds too long before he returned to himself. Then when they were changing clothes in the changing room, Steve found that he couldn't help but throw some glances at Tony's body. With years of engineering work, Tony was lean but deceptively strong for a supposed desk jockey. And the way he stretched...

Steve looked back guiltily. He was thinking too much. This was wrong to think about your friend this way. He was affected too much by the story.

However, the next day when he found that another story rated nc17 by the same author was posted, he clicked on it and read it.

It would be better if it was bad porn. Then he could totally discarded it. But it had a very clean and concise style, with a lot of visual details, and he couldn't tear his eyes off it.  Finally he opened a Writer document, copying and pasting the text into it, and replaced his and Tony's names with A and B. He felt less guilty that way.

Reading porn featuring Tony and him was an eye-opening experience. He had no idea so many people fantasized about him and Tony. He wasn't so sure if he could act out some postures described in the stories, and some prose were too flowery. But in general they were hot, and some acts described were very intriguing. He had never imagined that a collar would be a toy, for example.

This afternoon when Steve was reading a story on his computer in his room, he heard Jan. "Hey, Steve, what're you reading?"

Steve quickly closed the browser window. "Nothing special."

"Steve, How... Do you find anything unusual posted on the community?"

Steve's heart skied a beat. "No, of course not. Why ask?"

Jan looked relieved. "It's fine. I worry..."

Steve diverted the discussion but he had a dreadful suspicion. Would Jan find the community and discover the presence of porn about Tony and him? Worse, would Jan be reading them?

No, of course it wasn't possible. He must have thought too much.

The following days Steve was twitchy. Jan nearly discovered his secret. What if the team knew? What if... what if Tony discovered it? But Tony didn't act weird. It was very possible that Tony didn't know about it. He was so busy after all.

One day when the Avengers were in the living room, Peter read a magazine and raise his head to say, "Look, there's an article about women writing stories about Harry Potter."

Storm commented, "I know people who do something like this, not for Harry Potter though."

"Really? What are they writing about?" Jan asked

Storm winked, "I don't want to disclose names, but the XMen are big on fanfic and others."

"That makes sense. They're just the age," Jan said.

Peter mused, "Now that we have our comics out, will people write about us in the comics?"

Tony said, "If they do, it's free promotion. I should look it up." Steve's heart froze. Tony then continued, "But I'm too busy for this anyway."

  
Steve knew that he should quit reading. It was close. He didn't want his team to know about the stories' existence, let along knowing his new reading habit.

However, he kept failing to quit. It wasn't just about the titillation of the porn, but when he read about Tony's soft eyes and gentleness, he fond that he was wishing for something he lacked.  

But they were just stories any way.

  
One day when he looked around the community, he found that someone posted an article called "Captain America/Iron Man: ship manifesto."

Then he read it.

It was... very detailed, almost a bit creepy, and listed a lot of news reports, publicity photoes, interviews and a lot of video as resources to argue that there was canon (This word reminded Steve of the Bible, but he suspected it had no relationship to this.) support to ship them as a couple. Some seemed too far-fetched. Some seemed to be just a friendly gesture taken too far. But collectively, it seemed daunting. Did Tony really looked at him this way all the time? The casual touch, the lively conversation, the time spent together... Was it true?

He read it once , and then twice. Then he made a decision.

* * *

  
It was Sunday. Steve sat by Tony’s bed side, gave him a cup of warm coffee when Tony opened his eyes, and patiently waited for Tony drink it to be fully awake. Tony put the cup down, smiled at Steve and said, "Hey, handsome. What bring you here?"

 

Steve smiled back. He paid more attention to his hair and put on a nicer T-shirt for today. He gently nudged Tony and said, "Breakfast now."

Steve and Tony went to the room to have their breakfast together. They talked casually, and Steve noticed that Tony touched him frequently: a pat on his hand, fingers brushing each other. Was it something he just discovered?

After they finished the breakfast, Steve asked hopefully, "Are you free today?"

"Well, I have armor repair scheduled this afternoon. Why ask?"

"Can I watch?"

"Of course. You have a standing invitation, as long as you don't find it boring."

"I won't." It was true. He found Tony's focus mesmerizing, and he really enjoyed the comfortable silence together.

It would also be a better place to achieve his plan, according to the stories, .

Steve and Tony went into the workshop. Tony worked on the armour while Steve handed him the tools needed. The routine soothed Steve.

When Tony took a break, Steve feigned to talk casually. "The other day I read an interesting article, about you and me."

"What's it about?" Tony asked.

Here Steve needed his nerves. "It said we're together. Romantically."

"Tabloid? You shouldn't pay too much attention of them. They're all rubbish." Tony said, voice a bit tense.

It didn't look good, but Steve continued, "No, I read it on the Internet."

"Internet 's worse. You can't sue them for libel. Don't pay too much attention to them." Tony waved his hands.

"But what if I want it to be true?" Steve asked.

"What do you mean?"

Steve bit his lips. "I 'd like us to be together, to have dates, if you'd like to."

Tony stared at him. Steve waited for him to say anything, to do anything. But there was no response. Perhaps he read the signals wrong. He shouldn't believe in what the Internet said, like Tony said.

"It's all right if you don't feel the same. I'd like us to be still friends."

"Don't feel the same? Tony repeated. "Are you... are you speaking the truth?"

"Which part?"

"The part that you said you'd like to date me."

"Of course I'm. Why do I say otherwise?"

"It sounds too good," Tony said. He smiled, "I'd date you in a brink. I just don't know you think the same."

"Thank you," Steve said.

"And you thank me. You... Can I kiss you? Will it be too fast to you?"

"It's all right."

Tony pressed his lips on Steve gently. Steve opened his mouth and let Tony's tongue in. Steve tried t tangle with Tony's tongue, and received enthusiastic response. Inside he was saying thank you to the Internet.


End file.
